Shooting an NFL Carolina Panthers Game
Great sports photography by Phuddle, with some truly convincing action-stopping frames.
The game was played under cloud cover, so the wide-open aperture of f/2.8 on the Sigma 70-200 lens helped in keeping shutter speeds high. It also didn't hurt to have the Hyper-Sonic Motor (HSM) built into the lens to help with fast and silent autofocusing.
Links
- Larger view of the images
- All shots were handheld, with typical shutter speeds of 1/180 to 1/1000 sec
- The D50 was in Aperture priority mode; this setting gave the desired (shallow) depth-of-field
- Phuddle feels that for sports photography, the Sigma 70-200mm is not handicapped by the lack of VR (vibration reduction) as a high shutter speed is needed to freeze action anyway. For additional stability, he kneels and rests his elbow on the knee
- Preferably, you'd need to be on the sidelines to get close enough with a lens having a maximum focal length of 200mm
- See more NFL Panthers pics at Phuddle's photo gallery
Also of great interest is Randy's (cheerleading) take on the same game, shot with a Nikon D70s.